Android O may introduce finger gestures and more... but also maybe not

Good news comes to those who wait, and those who've been waiting for something as menial as the native ability to use finger gestures to come to Android should feel very jovial. An anonymous source from Google told VentureBeat that Android will soon support this specific feature, in addition to several others. Apparently, these features will be confirmed later this year at the company's annual developer's conference:

The features might or might not make their debut in the next version of Android, a source familiar with the matter told VentureBeat. Google is expected to unveil Android O at its I/O developer conference in May and then release it in the fall following multiple developer previews.

The gesture feature would enable you to bring up a list of recent contacts with the simple outline of the letter C on the screen, for instance, which would be faster than calling out the command to Assistant and waiting for it to respond. It's possible, however, that Google's gesture triggers "could get delayed or might not ever ship," according to the source.

We also don't know if Google will implement a feature called Copy Less, which could help cut down on the finicky process of copying text from one app and pasting it into another. However, this particular ability could come implemented in a future update of the GBoard virtual keyboard.

The source could also not confirm whether the next version of Android would have more robust messaging features, like the ability to tap on an address in a text message in Android Messages and start navigating in Google Maps.

None of these claims have been publicly confirmed by Google. For now, we can merely speculate what's to come in Android O. And if you're not entirely ready for that sort of rumor mongering, you can start smaller by guessing which dessert is the inspiration for the next version of Android.